Fall ball Doosan Bears ride winning streak from sixth to forth

The KBO descended into the normal end of season chaos last week, with 16 different combinations facing off in a hodgepodge of games. While the Twins, Wiz and Dinos hold on to the top 3, the Bears rose out of the maelstrom to jump from sixth to forth

The Doosan Bears celebrate after beating the Kia Tigers 8-3 at Gwangju Kia Champions Field in Gwangju on Sunday. [YONHAP]

The KBO descended into the normal end of season chaos last week, with 16 different combinations facing off in a hodgepodge of rescheduled games and series. While the LG Twins, KT Wiz and NC Dinos comfortably hold on to the top three spots, the Doosan Bears rose out of the maelstrom to jump from sixth to forth and claim a playoff spot.

The Bears rode a six-game winning into fourth place, beating the now-sixth-place Kia Tigers on Friday and Sunday to claim the playoff spot. In the madness that is fall baseball, that could all still change in a matter of hours — as of press time, the two sides are still set to play Saturday’s rain-canceled game on Monday and if the Tigers win, they could take fourth place back and not the Bears back down again.

There were only two other three-game series last week. The Twins swept the SSG Landers over the weekend with a doubleheader on Sunday — 10-4, 8-3, 9-5 — while the Wiz beat the Hanwha Eagles 7-0, 3-1 in a doubleheader on Sunday with a rain cancellation on Saturday to be replayed Monday.

In the mess of other games, the Bears were the week’s biggest winners. The Seoul club, known for their fall ball chops, saw off the eighth-place Eagles, sixth-place Landers and fifth-place Tigers, putting themselves in a good position for the coming week when they’ll face the third-place Dinos four times with a brief sojourn to Daegu to take on the ninth-place Samsung Lions in the middle.

The LG Twins took four wins in a row from Friday, but did not see any action in the midweek due to scheduling and a rain cancellation.

The second-place Wiz also had a solid week, beating the Landers, the Dinos and the Eagles, but slipping up for a single loss to the Lions on Thursday.

The Dinos only managed three games over the week, winning two, but still have eight wins and two losses over the last 10 games. That puts them in the strongest position among the top three teams, tying only with the resurgent Bears on recent performance.

The Lotte Giants, currently in seventh place and unlikely to break into the top five at this stage in the season, are also on good form. The Busan club started the week with a loss to the Dinos, but followed that up with wins against the Tigers, tenth-place Kiwoom Heroes and Lions.

The Lions were the only other team to see any success last week, winning single games against the Tigers and Wiz before dropping their weekend series to the Dinos. The KBO returns with another mixed schedule this week. All five teams will be in action to kick the week off as the Dinos take on the Bears, the Heroes visit the Giants, the Lions face the Wiz, the Twins play the Tigers and the Landers visit the Eagles in Daejeon.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]